There have been conflicting news reports concerning the condition of Axeon Hagens Berman Cycling Team rider Chad Young, who crashed Sunday in the Tour of the Gila. Unfortunately, Chad is not expected to recover from his injuries.

The 21-year-old from Newmarket, New Hampshire, suffered severe head injuries in a high-speed mountain descent and was life-flighted to a hospital in Tucson, Ariz.

At this time, his family asks for privacy. We at Axeon Hagens Berman respect the family's wishes and want them to know that they are in our thoughts and prayers during this devastating and difficult time

Victim of a broken collarbone following his crash at the Four Days of Dunkirk, Boris Vallée had a successful surgery last Saturday evening with Dr Claes. The rider of Thimister has gone back home on Sunday afternoon and is now considering his come back to competition but knows he has to scrap the Tour of France.

Since his heavy crash last Friday on the 4th stage of the Four Days of Dunkirk, Boris Vallée (23 years old) has done nothing but visiting hospitals. The rider of Thimister is covered with bruises due to the violence of the contact with the asphalt and could not get back on the saddle.

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I didn’t understand. We were riding 60 to 70kmh in a descent on the approach of the local circuits. Then I probably took a hole, a bidon or a cavity on the road and I passed over my bike. I was right in the middle of the peloton. I was wondering what happened. Some riders then knocked into me as well. I kept lying on the ground. I could no longer move my left arm nor leg. I was also suffering at my neck and collarbone. The race doctors came for support and I went into the ambulance.

Open to the Bone

Vallée was cared for at the Hospital Centre of Boulogne-sur-Mer before being repatriated to Belgium last Saturday. No question of getting back home, he was headed to Herentals to Dr Toon Claes, who has a reputation in the cycling world for collarbone surgery. After undergoing a surgery on Saturday evening and getting back home on Sunday afternoon in Thimister, the sprinter of Verviers should be able to train again within a week or 10 days.

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A plate has been placed at my left collarbone. I was also transplanted flesh and skin at the elbow because I was open to the bones. I had already broken my right collarbone with the juniors and I crashed heavily with the national team during a training session in the Vosges but it’s the first time the consequences were so heavy. I have contusions on the whole upper body, which prevents me from sleeping well. Fortunately my legs have been spared. Perhaps I might resume physical activity within a week.

His Dream is Blowing Away

After a difficult start to the season ending with an optimistic note at the Denain GP (4th), mid-April, Vallée hoped he could start the second part of the season on the Four Days of Dunkirk. Eventually his objectives will be postponed and he must yield to the facts: his greatest dream is blowing away.

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Taking part in the Tour of France, it’s down but you have to deal with it. It’s true that there won’t be too many other chances to race in my province, in front of my home and my parents’ home with all my fans but I’m still alive. I want to keep a positive mind, not to tell myself that the whole year is rotten. I have to come back and win one. I need to provoke luck even though misfortune is sometimes involved.

The most reasonable objective is around a bit more than two months at the Tour of Wallonia in which he won the 2nd stage last year.

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I hope I’ll be able to perform nicely and to compete in a handful of races before in order to be fit again.

He shook his head sadly and told me that endemic drug use had compelled him to give up a promising career. "Even one small local race, prize was a salami, and I see doping!" - Tim Moore: Gironimo (Riding the Very Terrible 1914 Tour of Italy)

Ben Hermans' heavy crash in a descent at the Tour of Poland last Monday was not without consequences of the 31-year-old Limburger. He will not mount a bike again before 4 to 6 weeks. The winner of the Tour of Oman broke three teeth, his sternum, his right wrist and left big toe are fractured. Plus, abrasion all over his body.

(I left for you all the other news for those of you who speak French. Especially transfer news but I see that some posters have already reported those tranfer news on thread where it belongs, so that's good. )